Get ready for a return trip to the bizarre town of Twin Lakes as developer Spooky Doorway’s Kickstarter for The Darkside Detective: Season 2 stocks up for the journey.
Playing Catch-Up
The first season of The Darkside Detective by developer Spooky Doorway entertained people with a point-and-click adventure in the supernatural town of Twin Lakes (think Gravity Falls, and what sounds like inspiration for the town’s name, Twin Peaks). Its story felt like a mix of Stranger Things and The X-Files funneled through a comedic lens. It also had the heart of a buddy cop flick due to the dynamic between player character Detective Francis McQueen and his partner, Officer Patrick Dooley. Together the duo confronted all manner of weird and freaky across nine episodic cases laid out like a recent Telltale game, even ending in a season finale cliffhanger with Dooley winding up stranded in the titular Darkside.
Charting a Course: From the Wrestling Ring to Ireland
The Darkside Detective: Season 2 plans to pick up where the first season left off—with a last season recap included—and reunite McQueen with Dooley before sending them out on new cases. The Kickstarter promises the second game will mix the new along with the familiar, such as giving players the opportunity to venture into the world of amateur wrestling, crash a retirement home, take a pilgrimage to a classic horror tradition like the fun fair, and metaphorically turn back time with a high school reunion. It may even go a little meta with its planned excursion abroad to Ireland, the real life HQ of developer Spooky Doorway. And besides focusing on the follow-up to the cliffhanger with Officer Dooley, the Kickstarter says there are other subtle threads from the first game that will continue in the sequel.
An Experienced Crew
Spooky Doorway’s Kickstarter has the benefit of funding a direct sequel to a game they have already published, showcasing the team’s experience with completing a project in the world of Twin Lakes. The first installment of what’s turning out to be The Darkside Detective series released on PC, Mac, Linux, and the Nintendo Switch to favorable reviews from PC Gamer, IGN, Rock Paper Shotgun, and The Verge. It performed well at festivals too, winning Best Narrative at the Indie Dome Awards, Excellence in Audio and Excellence in Narrative at the Galway Games Gathering, and Best Writing for a Comedy and Readers’ Choice for Best Character (for Officer Dooley) at the Aggie Awards in 2017. The Darkside Detective is even featured in The Art of Point-and-Click Adventure Games published by Bitmap Books, and its soundtrack by composer Ben Prunty is available for purchase.
Ghosting Across the Finish Line
There are no playable demos of The Darkside Detective: Season 2, but the cases “Malice in Wonderland” and “Tome Alone” from the original game are available. Rewards for funding include digital copies of both games, posters, t-shirts, an almanac featuring content like new lore about Twin Lakes and more puzzles, even the inclusion of yourself into the sequel’s high school reunion encounter, and other incentives. The Kickstarter for the supernatural sequel—already halfway funded—concludes on October 12, appropriately timed with the impending Halloween holiday.
Watch a pixelated version of Spooky Doorway team members Treasa “Tracey” McCabe (programmer), Dave McCabe (writer), and Paul Conway (artist) make the case for their sequel with the same humorous streak they established in their previous game.
